INDYCAR: Worst-case Gateway race continues hard-luck season for Will Power, Penske
by William Soquet / LASTCAR.info Staff Writer
PHOTO: IndyCar.com
Will Power finished last for the 10th time in his NTT IndyCar Series career in Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway when his #12 Verizon Chevrolet crashed out after completing 47 of the race’s 260 laps.
The finish came in Power’s 279th series start and was his first since St. Petersburg in 2020, 65 races ago.
This season has been quite the stressful one for Power. Before the first lap of on-track action, there was lingering pressure surrounding his contract situation. Sitting with one year left on his contract, an age of 43 going on 44, and an eventual replacement loaned out to A.J. Foyt Racing this year, Power was arguably one of the most talked-about drivers over the offseason.
The beginning of the season didn’t do much to help that. Power was the initial instigator in a Lap 1 crash at St. Petersburg that put him 26th to start the season. However, while teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin struggled at points after that, Power was the lone consistent Team Penske bright spot, placing sixth, fifth, fifth, and third over the next four races.
However, the Indianapolis 500 was another hot spot. With murmurs surrounding a contract (or lack thereof) picking up, Power was caught up in a Team Penske cheating scandal that saw a car that would probably challenge for the pole sent to 32nd on the grid due to unapproved attenuator modifications. He was never a factor during the race and finished 16th, although he was once again the highest-finishing Penske machine. He started the month of June by placing fourth at Detroit, another consistent run. Power entered Gateway fifth in points, three spots ahead of McLaughlin and eight spots ahead of Newgarden, who is in the midst of the worst season of his career.
First practice had a little more weight on it this weekend, as it also served as the qualifying simulation. Power’s was a middle-of-the-pack car, placing thirteenth on the chart. Jacob Abel had the slowest car in the field, running just over a second off the pace of session leader Newgarden. In qualifying, Abel was again at the back of the field, running a two-lap total time of two-and-a-half seconds more than the polesitter. That polesitter was Power, who cleared McLaughlin by a cumulative tenth-and-a-half over two laps to take the top spot on the grid.
The main jockeying for position at the start of the race actually came at the front of the field this time and not at the back. While Abel and 26th-place starter Kyffin Simpson both kept their spots throughout the opening lap, it was the lead that changed hands. David Malukas had an incredible start and passed not one, not two, but three cars to take the lead at the end of the first lap.
Malukas began to check on the field when the first action of the race occurred. Devlin DeFrancesco was running 19th on lap four but then lost the car heading into turn three, backing into the wall and damaging the rear wing. While the damage initially looked to be terminal, DeFrancesco was soon caught on camera hustling back to his car. He rejoined the race around lap 40 – mired tens of laps down, but still in contention for some points in what was likely to be a race heavy on attrition.
Power had settled into second place for the opening run, which had gone caution-free since DeFrancesco’s incident. However, on lap 46, his right-front tire failed as he entered turn three, causing the car to gradually drift up into the wall and make contact with the outside barrier in turn four. The hit knocked the suspension out of alignment, as Power’s car wiggled back and forth down the front straightaway following the crash. Unlike DeFrancesco’s incident, there would be no repairing this – Power’s night was done.
Team Penske’s next misfortune was during the following incident. Newgarden was leading at the time and was trying to lap Alex Palou when Louis Foster hit the turn four wall in front of Palou. Palou darted right on the front straightaway as Foster spun back across the track. Newgarden dove left, but Foster’s path continued to spin him low. Newgarden launched up and over Foster’s car and impacted the pit lane dividing wall, turning over and skidding along before eventually coming to a stop. Thankfully, Newgarden was okay, although the ensuing caution for cleanup consumed nearly 20 laps.
At that point, Scott McLaughlin was the only Penske driver left in the race. He was the next driver to fall out of the event, coming to pit road from sixth with just under 50 laps to go, citing something broken in the left rear. The team-killing race left all three drivers in even less envious points positions after the race – Power fell two spots to seventh, McLaughlin stayed in eighth but saw his points gap grow, and Newgarden slid all the way to 16th, behind both Ed Carpenter Racing drivers and the Dale Coyne Racing machine of Rinus VeeKay. Additionally, Penske took the lead in the LASTCAR owners championship for this season, as all three drivers have finished last once.
DeFrancesco rounded out the Bottom Five, only making up four positions in his 200-plus extra laps after the crash.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*Power is the first polesitter to finish last since Penske teammate Newgarden at the Milwaukee Mile last year.
*With his 10th last-place finish, Power moved into a tie with Scott Dixon for fifth on the all-time IndyCar Series list.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
27) #12-Will Power / 47 laps / crash
26) #45-Louis Foster / 128 laps / crash
25) #2-Josef Newgarden / 129 laps / crash
24) #3-Scott McLaughlin / 216 laps / mechanical
23) #30-Devlin DeFrancesco / 217 laps / running
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES OWNERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Team Penske (3)
2nd) Dale Coyne Racing (2)
3rd) Chip Ganassi Racing, Prema Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES MANUFACTURERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Honda (4)
2025 LASTCAR INDYCAR SERIES DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP
